Mpumalanga, South Africa – A 43-year-old Zimbabwean man has been arrested in South Africa after being found with thousands of Rands in cash in a suspected case of being en route to bribe immigration officials to stamp the travelling documents.
The majority of the passports are Zimbabwe passport documents. Other passports are from Malawi and Mozambique.
The police recovered R147 000 stuffed in the passports.
The suspect has been charged with contravening South Africa’s Immigration Act, fraud, and money laundering. The car he was travelling in was confiscated for further investigation.
Hundreds of thousands Zimbabwe nationals live in South Africa working in different industries after fleeing harsh economic conditions in their country.
The majority of Zimbabweans extend their stay in South Africa by travelling frequently to border entry points where they bribe immigration officials to extend their time in South Africa.
The arrest of the Zimbabwean man is a smuck on the face of Harare which pretends that the economy is working well when in reality hundreds of thousands Zimbabweans leave the country every year.
The mass immigration issue in South Africa has resulted in some groups calling for the deportation of foreign nationals mostly Zimbabweans from South Africa accusing them of taking jobs meant for locals.